


The Man of Obsession

by musicture (ronkytonks)



Series: Murder Mysteries [1]
Category: Mech.mans
Genre: AU, Homophobic Language, POV Second Person, Racist Language, Sexist Language, sex scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 02:57:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3274139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronkytonks/pseuds/musicture
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Detective Antemh works hard on a case. Who is the mysterious person who killed Aniese Wygott?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Man of Obsession

**Author's Note:**

> This is a "Choose your own path" story that I did with my datefriend. Anywho, here's the whole thing. I'm not planning on editing it or anything so, whoo. It's supposed to be set in the 1960's, but please disregard any discontinuities haha I tried my best to research. Also Antemh's views in this story do not represent my own, they are entirely his.

You are Ace Detective Antemh Deonis and you are the best there is. Nobody solves cases like you, nobody is as clever at solving them or as fast. Except maybe your partner in crime (or in law), but she's a different story. It's different having a woman for a partner instead of a man. You've been told many negative things about her by coworkers, that she's only partnered with you because she did a favor for the boss. You don't believe any of it, of course. Her work speaks for itself.

You're at your desk and it's six a.m. in the morning. You have a hot cup of coffee sitting in front of you and some disorganized papers littering your desk. When you aren't on a case, you're given paperwork to do. You can only hope that a case'll pop up soon. You do all sorts of things, but most of the ones you get are about murders that have stumped the police completely. Once they admit they're as clueless as they were when they started (and really, when aren't coppers clueless?), that's when you get called in. You feel like you're about to fall asleep when you hear a knock on your door. You snap your head up and take a sip of coffee to wake up a little before telling whoever is at the door that it's open.

The secretary of the detective department opens the door and gives you a nice smile. She's a nice woman, short and cute and soft. You'd fall for her in an instant if you two ever got close, you're sure. There's a lot of rumors about her as well, but you're pretty sure it's because the boys get restless and wanna start trouble for the women in the place.

"Mister Deonis, I'm sure you will be happy to hear you have a new case," she tells you. You perk up. That was more energy filling than your coffee.

"A case? Show it to me."

The secretary is holding a manilla folder with a few papers in it. She comes over to your desk and sets it down to show you. You look to the secretary. Her name's Pendic Skreon, you forgot to mention. She's mostly just called "the secretary" because people don't know her name or don't care to know.

The thought of squawking like an imbecile and shitting on your desk passes through your mind and for a moment, you briefly seriously consider it. Then you shake your head. You must be really tired. You take a sip of your coffee, then get to opening the folder, wasting no time on pleasant idle talk.

The first thing you see is the briefing/cover page. You skim it. The police suspected it may have been a gang related death, though they weren't sure how. They arrived early in the morning after a distressed call from a young woman, but when they got there, the woman's body was tied by the feet and hung from a tree in her front yard. You flip the pages and inspect the photos inside of the folder. The photos are black and white, since color cameras aren't all that common yet. A close up of the woman shows that her face is all dark, whether from the blood collecting in her head or a beating. There's pictures of the autopsy and of her naked body where the injuries were. Clipped to the corner of the folder is a picture of the woman from before this whole ordeal. She looks sad, but she's smiling. She has large glasses and hair that's tied back. You wonder where they got this photo, but it probably wasn't hard to find.

You turn back to the front page and reread the info. Her name is Aniese Wygott, she was 27 at her time of estimated death. They couldn't find anything that resembled a break in or any sort of struggle. She had stab wounds and burn marks, all recent. Rope burn on her neck. By all accounts, it looked like she'd gone and done all of that herself. The only way they knew she couldn't have, was that her wrists were bound to her body while she was hanging there.

You see that it won't be an easy case. You look through the interviews of family and the questions asked. She only has one family member. Her closest friend wasn't available for comment, but another man stepped up to offer to talk and see if anything he had to say was valuable. You notice they skipped intervewing the neighbors and her coworkers. You're pretty sure you know the exact cops who worked on this case. They're idiots.

"Is there anything more that you can tell me about the case?" you ask the secretary. You know that she secretly follows cases because she wants to be a detective someday, too. She's a good information source.

She blushes but smiles, pleased that you're asking. Your eyes slip down to stare at her lips and suddenly your face feels hot when you feel the urge to kiss her. You ignore the urge and force your eyes back up to her's. You don't know if she noticed that.

"Well, I was searching the backgrounds of the people interviewed. They interviewed her sister, Sarlla Wygott. She works at a um, *club* and has a history of minor fights from being under the influence. The one unavailable for comment is Darvin Renals. He has major political connections and is running a campaign for governor. There's a few shady deals I couldn't quite uncover. I would talk to his brother, Conrad Renals, if you want to find any leads. The last person who was interviewed was Skinnr Abelin. He works at a coffee shop that the victim frequented and was sort of friends with her. He didn't have much anything useful to say. He did say that she's sort of a sad person, so if suicide was suspected, that that might be it."

"The cops already ruled out suicide, didn't they?" You lean forward on your elbows, intrigued. Your partner will love this case.

"Technically, yes. But have you heard of suicide pacts and such? Not that it's that, but she could have asked somebody to kill her, or maybe it was an assisted suicide?"

You wrinkle your nose. It doesn't sound plausible, but you file the idea away for later anyways. "Okay. Anything else?"

"I would interview all of the neighbors if I could. Make sure to get coworkers of her and family and friends,  
friends of family and friends, the stuff you normally do." She smiles at you.

You give her a tired smile back.

You shoo the secretary away after a little bit of idle chat. It's now seven a.m. and you'll have to start on the case soon today. Pendic wishes you luck on the case and asks you to tell her what you can when you find out anything. Then you're alone in your office. You stand and stretch your legs, groaning. You hate office work, so the remaining papers on your desk can wait. You take your lukewarm coffee and leave your office to find your partner's.

She usually arrives very early, if she even leaves. She's spent more than a few nights at the office. Acklin Firini is her name. She's cold and gets to the point, doesn't waste any time fooling around with things that aren't the facts. You're practically in love with her style. Sometimes you worry she might be getting better than you.

When you reach her office, the door is closed.

You knock on the door, then stand back to wait a few minutes. Nobody answers the door and you wonder if she's even in. Nonetheless, you reach forward and knock again, louder this time. There's a shifting noise inside, but after that, nothing. You groan and open the door anyways. When you open it, you see your partner sprawled out on the sofa in her office. You have an armchair instead of a sofa in your's. You secretly wish you had a sofa.

Acklin looks like she's sleeping. She must have spent the night here, again. Come to think, you don't think she's gone home at all this week. That's pretty bad, considering that there's only paperwork to do. You glance over at her desk and see a large stack of neatly organized paper, then a smaller stack next to it.

You decide to be a sweetheart and get your lovely coworker some coffee from the lounge. You leave the room, toting your own cold coffee in hand and close her door. It doesn't take long for you to go to the lounge and make 2 cups and get back to her office. One cup for you and for her. You open the door without knocking, then close it behind you and walk up to her. She's still sleeping.

"Hey, get up!" You unceremoniously kick the couch. A few drops of coffee escape the cups and hit your partner.

Acklin jumps, hands going to where the coffee landed and rubbing the now-burnt spots. She rolls over and looks to you with a hard hatred in her eyes. It scares you, so you hold out her coffee cup, smiling nervously.

"Got you coffee!"

She looks to you, to the coffee cup, then sits up, settling down and taking the coffee cup. "Watch your back Deonis."

You laugh nervously and take a sip of your own scalding hot coffee, eyes widening when you realize how hot it is. Of course, you take it like a man and finish your sip.

You start telling Acklin about the case. You notice she hasn't drann any of her coffee yet, and probably with good reason. It's hot. Your's is hot, too. You describe the victim's manner of death and the state of her body and that there were only a few people interviewed. Acklin listens to you talk. You aren't sure how much of it sticks to her since she just woke up. You tell her that the folder is still in your office and you're planning on starting on it later today.

Then, you decide that you're going to be the manly man that you are and take another daring gulp of coffee. You take a longer sip now, your eyes watering and mouth burning from how hot it is. When you swallow, you're pretty sure you feel a layer of your skin wash down your throat. You shudder. Acklin is staring at you with dumbfounded amazement. Not because she's impressed, more because she thinks you're an idiot and is probably wondering how she got stuck with you.

You grimace, holding your half full cup of coffee.

You tell Acklin about the scoop that Pendic gave you. Acklin's face softens just a little at the mention of the secretary and for a moment you feel a little jealous of their close relationship that nobody is supposed to know about. You stick your free hand into your pocket and look down at your steaming coffee.

When you're done talking, Acklin speaks. "So our victim sounds like she had a sad life. Pendic's suggestion about the assisted suicide sounds worth looking into."

You make a face at her and want to tell her she only thinks so because of how close she and the secretary are. You don't. She understands the meaning of your expression and frowns at you. To escape her frown, you down the rest of the coffee, despite its scalding property. Ah, yes. The delicious taste of 1st degree burn.

"We should start interviewing people around nine. Call up suspects and interview them." You hold onto your now empty cup of coffee.

"I can call and arrange interviews, you can do the first interviews. I'll take care of the last set up ones," Acklin tells you. She stands up and stretches.

"Sounds great."

Not able to help your curiosity, you ask, "Have you gone home at all this week?"

"Not that I know of," Acklin tells you, stretching. She lets her arms fall to her sides and looks to you. She looks very tired.

"Why? You can't possibly have that much work."

"Things that you're too smart to understand," Acklin says, not in a mocking way. You tilt your head, sort of understanding but not really.

"If you need anywhere to stay, you can stay at my house. My daughter won't mind, she loves company." It's true, she does. She'd be all over Acklin, trying to convince her to do things with her. Your daughter seems attention starved and you feel bad about it.

"No thank you." Acklin starts towards her desk. "Out, now, I'll get to work and you do what you do best."

"Solving mysteries?"

"Poking your nose where it isn't supposed to be." She sits down in her chair. "Have Pendic give me a copy of the file."

You nod.

In your heart, you would love to throw down your cup and protest, but you don't. You follow her instruction and leave her office instead. You leave the door just slightly ajar to annoy her. Passive agressive enough to feel good, but harmless enough that revenge won't matter. You make a point of stopping by the secretary's desk and telling her Acklin wants a copy of the folder. She says no problem and gives you a sweet smile and asks how your day is going.

"Slow," you answer at first. You pause. "And hot. I drank all of my coffee before it even cooled off." You're bragging a little and you know it.

Pendic giggles. "Wow! Did it hurt?"

"Yes, but don't tell anyone. Especially not Acklin. I was trying to impress her."

"She probably just thought you looked stupid..." Pendic smiles at you and you make a face at her.

"Well, I have to get back to work. Acklin's setting up interviews and I'm the interviewer."

"Okay! It was nice talking to you!"

It is now afternoon and you're at lunch with the victim's sister. Sarlla Wygott is her name and she was by far one of the most cooperative interviewees. She's the first of the day. You have three or four more people you have to meet with. For lunch you're only having a milkshake, since your next interviewee will most likely want to grab lunch as well. Sarlla did not get anything, but you don't blame her for not wanting to eat while discussing her sister's death. You offered to buy her something but she only shrugged it off.

You have your folder with you, it's sitting in front of you on the table. Sarlla asked you about it when you first two met and you told her it had the details of the case in it. When she asked to see it, you told her most of the things in there were confidential until the case was solved. Or twenty-five years after it's dropped.

"So, Sarlla, what have you been dying to tell somebody that the cops didn't bother to ask?" you ask her.

Sarlla shrugs, then gives a half-hearted smile. She looks like she wants to flirt or joke but is conflicted with sadness. You can't blame her for that.

"Okay... how close were you and your sister?"

Sarlla pauses, then shrugs. "We're really close. Or... were, I suppose."

"Were?" You try not to show too much interest.

"Yeah. 'Til she died." There's a sullen silence between the two of you. You feel sorry for her, but not overly so to stop you from doing your job.

"So, did your sister have a history of anything? Depression, alcoholism, anything that might have led to this?" You take a sip of your shake. It tastes a lot better than the coffee you had this morning.

Sarlla's silent for a moment, then nods. "Yeah. Depression. Da never had the money to get meds for her. She uh, hurt herself, too, with matches. I've been working hard to be able to pay for her medication, now, and doctor visits and stuff." She doesn't look at you. "Guess it didn't work."

You nod and jot down a few notes in your small pocket notebook, then look back to her. "Have you two had any affiliations with gangs or anything of the sort?"

"Uh." Sarlla's face hardened a little. "Why do you ask?"

That is a little spooky. You shrug. "Cops think it may have been a gang-related death. Trying to find leads about it."

Sarlla's face softens. "Oh, okay. Aniese... was too sweet and shy for gangs. She's friends with that politics guy, Darvin Renals, but that's as close to a gang as she's gotten."

"And you?"

Sarlla paused for a moment, considering her words and staring down at the table. "Well, yes. I won't say much."

"That's okay. I just need what's helpful. I'm not going to arrest you or anything."

Sarlla shrugs. "I'm close to being the leader of it, I'm liked. Nobody woulda messed with my sister. They like her."

"Can you tell me anybody who's in your gang?"

Sarlla shook her head.

You decide to change the topic from gang-related things to something more pleasant that you could collect information from. As you're talking to Sarlla, your mind wanders to the victim's house. Inevitably you'll have to inspect it along with Acklin. The body is gone and all the evidence needed is bagged, but it's still worth a look. Before you know it, an hour has passed between you and Sarlla and you realize you'll have to be going to meet Skinnr.

You sit back in that final manner and give Sarlla a "I hope everything gets better for you smile". "Well, thank you for your time Miss Wygott."

Sarlla sits up, too, and for a moment looks unbearably sad before a smile comes onto her face. "And thank you, Mister Deonis." She slips a business card across the table. When you reach for it, she says, "Come for a show sometime." By the time you're looking at it, she's already left.

The card is a business card for the strip joint she works at.

You consider stopping by, but going to that sorts of place during work would not be good for your image. If you do, you'll also likely miss your appointment with Skinnr. You get up and brush off your coat and shirt, grabbing your folder, card, and empty shake cup. You throw away the cup when you pass a trash can.

When you first see Skinnr, he looks... like a child. You're not even sure at first if it's actually him, but it is. You sit down at the table he's at, surprising him.

"Mister Skinnr?"

"Oh- Uh- Yeah." He looks down at his hands on the table, eyebrows furrowing and lip quivering. His emotions are easy to read.

"Would you like to eat something before we begin? I can pay," you offer.

"Oh um. That'd be great, thanks." He's soft looking and his voice is just as soft.

A waiter comes by and takes your's and Skinnr's orders. You aren't at a really expensive place, just a diner, but it still looks like Skinnr wouldn't be able to afford it by himself anyways. You make enough money that you can treat him. It makes for a better interview, anyhow. You and Skinnr chat idly. He begins to warm up to you just a little, but is still nervous and sad-looking. When your food comes, you rest your folder on the table.

You both got hamburgers and fries. "So, Mister Skinnr. Is there anything you'd like to say before we begin?"

Skinnr shrugs, picking at his food, looking hungry but also looking like he doesn't want to eat too fast. "I liked Aniese a lot."

"What would you say your relationship was with her?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-" Skinnr suddenly seems to become hungry and eats a few fries before answering. "Uhhhhh- We j-just saw each other sometimes."

"That's all."

"Um, yeah." Skinnr seemed very interested in his food, staring at it.

"O-kay." You don't make a point of pressing any further. "How often would you say you two talked."

"Oh um, maybe everyday? She liked coffee a lot and the shop was in a bookstore so it was like, her favorite place." Skinnr poked at his burger and pulled the tomato off to eat it. "Or at least that's what she said. I was just glad that I could see her ev..everday." His lip quivers and he looks down and tries to discreetly wipe at his eyes.

You feel just a tad sorry for him. It's painfully obvious that he liked her more than he's letting on, no matter how much he tries to dance around the question. While it's heart breaking, he also becomes a suspect because he could have some sort of hidden anger towards Aniese for not having liked him back. Thinking about it, you suppose her sister is also a suspect because of the payment for medication. She could have been financially strained and killed her, or something of the sort. It didn't help her case that she was apart of a gang as well. Hm.

You lean forward, taking care not to put your elbows on the table like your mother taught you. You do however eat a little before speaking again. This place has pretty good burgers. You might ask Acklin or Pendic out to here sometime.

"Did you know the victim's sister?" is the first thing you ask.

Skinnr shakes his head, then pauses. "Well, she came to the shop once with her sister. She didn't say who she was, but they looked almost identical, so I kinda figured, y'know?" Skinnr picks up his burger and begins eating it the proper way instead of picking off of it and eating the pickings.

"What all did you know about the victim?" Your burger is gone pretty quickly and your fries are next.

"U-um... well... I know she's really nice and sweet... and sad a lot. We haven't really talked on a deep level, I mean I only saw her at the shop. She likes books, though, she likes them a lot and... she likes coffee a lot. The hazelnut flavored is her favorite. She doesn't drink really really bitter coffee... U-um... She has contacts but never really wears them because they itch her eyes. That's... about it."

All mostly useless facts, but you roll with it.

You decide to stare at him instead of saying anything. Skinnr doesn't notice at first, but when he does, he looks unnerved. There's a few moments of silence before he speaks.

"Um... well I do know that... this one guy she hangs around sometimes seems like he's in a gang..."

You smile at the small input of information, then make yourself have a serious face again. "What's his name?"

"Um.. D-Darvin Renals... he's that political guy... you've probably heard of him..." His voice is noticably softer and he's glancing around, like somebody might hear him.

You, however, have not uncovered a new lead. You've honestly only probably confirmed what Pendic told you. You sigh. "I already know about him."

"Are you gonna interview him?" Skinnr asks quietly and curiously.

"If I can."

"Well, thank you for your time, Mister Skinnr. We'll probably be in contact again."

"O-oh, okay. Um... good luck. " Skinnr is quiet a moment, looking around nervously, then looks to you again. In a softer tone, he says, "Please find out who killed her. She didn't deserve to die."

"I'll do all I can," you say. Then, you get up, taking your belongings along with you to the front so that you can pay and then leave.

You decide to scope out where Sarlla works, since you'll have to eventually and you don't really feel like having any more interviews soon. You'll have to get back to the office before too long, though. No doubt Acklin's gotten a lot of interviews set up for you. You're halfway to the point of telling her she can go do the interviews instead, but that wouldn't really be fair, since she set them up for you. Sigh.

Turns out you know which place is Sarlla's. It's that night club you've thought about going to but never actually did. When you open the door, the smell of alcohol and sexed up people hit you. It's kind of gross and kind of arousing. You aren't here for alcohol or sex, though. You're just here to talk about Sarlla. You'll have to hit up where Skinnr works sooner or later as well.

You head to the bar, figuring that maybe you'll find a way to talk to management from the guy there. You wait a few minutes, as he's busy showing off his bartending skills to some ladies, before he comes over to you.

"What can I get you?" he asks.

You tell him you want a drink, but over the loud chatting, he can't really hear you. You try to shout it but he just ends up shrugging and making an "I have no idea what you're saying" face. You sigh and wave him closer. You lean across the counter and so does he. This feels pretty homosexual being this close to another man, but you decide not to think about it too much.

"How do I find out information in this place?" you practically shout into his ear as the talking grows louder.

"Depends on what you want!"

"I'm on a case and just need to find out about an employee here named-"

"And now, gentlemen!" A voice cuts you off, coming from the microphone on the stage. You look over. There's a well-dressed man in a tuxedo. "Time for the woman of the hour, Sarlla!"

The voices in the establishment quiet down and so do the lights, pinkish and bright lights focussing on Sarlla when she enters the stage in a dress that compliments her form well.

"About who?" the bartender asks in a low voice.

"I uh. Her."

You can't help but stare. She has some makeup on, more than she had on when you interviewed her. She notices you, or at least you think she does, because she winks in your direction before stepping up to the microphone. You lean against the counter, crossing your arms. Sarlla begins singing, moving her body in a way that's mesmerizing, the notes of her voice provoking feelings in your nether regions that you're familiar with. You force yourself to look away and to the bartender, trying to focus on your task at hand.

"How do I find information about her?" you ask.

"What do you need to know?"

"Just when she works and such. Mostly just where she was when the victim of my case died."

"You wouldn't happen to be investigating her sister, would you?"

 

You feel surprise register on your face. “Yes, actually. How would you know?”

The bartender grins. “We workers around here are like family, we know almost anything about each other.”

“Then I suppose telling me some things about Sarlla wouldn’t be too hard?”

“Depends on what you want to know.”

“Mainly I just want to know if she was here at 6:31 pm, Tuesday the 11th.”  
“That’s pretty specific. Hmm… You’ll have to ask one of the girls back stage, they have a schedule. Or, hell, ask Sarlla herself.”

You shrug. “I could ask her, but she could easily lie.”

You decide to go backstage, but Sarlla’s almost erotic performance is very… captivating. It can’t hurt to watch a bit of her show. She’s moving her body in time with the music, her hips and words flowing smoothly. She’s draped the shoulders of her dresses down to where now her bare shoulders are visible. You’re pretty certain you also know something that’s going to be visible if you continue watching. You give her a thumbs up from where you’re at, not sure if she sees it or not, and begin to head around the crowd, trying not to draw attention to yourself.

You pull out your badge from your pocket. Ladies are probably sensitive to strange men walking in on them backstage with no good reason. When you open the door, there’s a few women backstage idly and quietly chatting with each other. If you were to describe the room, the only words that would come to your mouth is “hot pink”. Not just the color, either. The atmosphere is hot and it’s… _pink_. The women immediately look to you like you knew they would and a few get that “What are you even-” faces before you pull out your badge.

“I’m a detective, I just need to ask a few questions. Then I’ll leave you to it.”

The women eye you, not very trusting of you and definitely not liking you. You meekly stand there.

You look to the nearest woman and decide to interview her. Well, honestly you aren't really interviewing anybody here, you're just getting some answers. When you get closer, she gives you the biggest stink eye you've gotten in a while, but you don't let it shake you. You pull out your notepad and pen from your pocket. It's a handy dandy little notebook.

"Can I ask you a few questions?" you ask the woman.

"Depends what you want to know."

"I just need a few sentiments from Sarlla's coworkers. I'm on her sister's investigation and I want to investigate all the suspects to determine who I can mark off as a suspect and who I can't."

"Alright. You want my opinion of her? She's sweet and has a bright future ahead of her. If you're wondering if she killed her sister, she's not that type of person. She loved her sister with all of her heart and we all know it."

"Okay, thanks. Can you confirm where she was at 6:31 pm on Tuesday the 11th?"

"She was backstage with us gals."

"Okay, thank you."

You decide you aren't going to sneak around. Sarlla comes back into the back, smiling widely. She doesn't see you at first because she's practically hoarded by the women backstage, who are telling her how wonderful she did and how amazing she sounded. You can see a little bit of blush on Sarlla's cheeks and you aren't sure if its from her makeup or the compliments.  
She eventually frees herself from the women once the compliments die down and she sees you. She gives you a wink, walking towards you.

"So, hey, you took up on the offer?"

"Sorta yeah. I also had to interview your coworkers and such." You feel awkwardly attracted to this woman right this moment and it feels weird.

Sarlla's able to guess your emotions and grins widely. "Got you excited, huh?"

You frown and shrug. "Let's just say its probably better I didn't see your entire show."

Sarlla laughs and pats your shoulder in a sort of motherly way that says "You're cute". Not in a flirty way, but the way your mom would call you cute when you did something stupid.

"If you need anything, I'm here until nine." She winks at you, but you're pretty sure she isn't talking about information. Pretty sure.

You clear your throat and attempt to subdue the perfervid desire that's affecting your mind and nether regions. You smile cheesily, then stick your hands in your pockets. Sarlla wiggles her eyebrows at you, stepping closer and, hot damn, the way she just moved her body is not helping.

You attempt to distract yourself by thinking of her sister's dead body in the pictures, but for some ungodly reason that ends up arousing you more.

 

You let out a nervous laugh and wheeze, but its silenced when Sarlla pulls you forward by your collar and you feel her lips against yours. Your eyes automatically flutter shut. Sarlla pulls away and moves her hands to your hips to pull you forward, and before you know it her body is pressed against yours and it feels great. You peek your eyes open at her, your breath hitching. She kisses you again. You have to fight not to moan loudly.

Then, she's off of you and taking ahold of your arm to drag you to a door that you hadn't seen. It's hidden in the dark shadows. She opens it and pulls you inside and you see that its a changing room, but none of that really matters to you because you're pushed down into a chair immediately and Sarlla's in your lap, grinding against you.

A part of your mind is protesting this, but its not loud enough to stop you from enjoying this. You find your arms wrapped around Sarlla's waist and shes kissing you heavily, both of you breathing hot breaths in between. A moan escapes you, but it encourages Sarlla more. You guess she's not looking for a long experience, because soon the zipper of your trousers is down and the hem is pulled back so that the bulge in your underwear is showing.

Sarlla's hand moves to it, grabbing it and squeezing it and you pivot your hips forward against her hand, pulling on her hips with your hands and kissing her back. She pulls away, a smirk on her face, then she slides off your lap. You have a free moment to briefly think, panting. Your legs are spread and your arousal is obvious through the exposed area of your underwear. Sarlla's slipping off her underwear from underneath her dress. You realize, if you're honest with yourself, you aren't entirely sure how to please a woman sexually, so hopefully she'll guide you along like you have been. You briefly remember that you're supposed to be doing your job, but forget that quickly when Sarlla climbs back on top of you.

She presses her lips into yours again and moves her hand to yours, moving it along to her crotch. She uses your hand to rub herself in circles gently. You mentally try to take notes, just in case you ever have another sexual encounter. She moves her hand from yours and you continue the motion, not sure what else to do. She smiles and kisses you again and you moan again, wanting her body as close to yours as possible.

She moves her hand to your crotch and pulls your d out through the parting in the front of your underwear. It feels great in her hand and you hope that it'll feel even greater inside of her. You're not disappointed when she soon sits up and over you, then slowly slides down onto you. She makes the smallest noise, the most you've heard her make, then she's sitting in your lap again, but with you inside of her. Her lips press against yours and she starts riding you, moving her hips against you.

You moan once more, but she silences it with another kiss. Her nails dig into your hips and you see that she's smiling as she rides you, seemingly enjoying this. You smile a little back and she calls you cute, kissing you. You both continue like this for a few more minutes until your stomach begins its familiar clenching and you mention it to Sarlla. She rides you for just a minute more before slipping off of you and settling back down on your lap where she'd been before. She takes your hand again and moves your fingers in small circles against her crotch and you continue the movement when she pulls her hand away. She moves her hand to your d and begins rubbing, the fluids from inside her still on it and making it easier for her to rub you. She comes before you do, and when she does she takes both hands to focus on you. It only takes a few minutes to make you come. Sarlla's hand catches it and you're sort of grossed out but also sort of relieved that it didn't get on either of your clothes. You sigh and she gets off of you, going to wipe her hands off and clean herself with a towel that was stuffed haphazardly into a drawer.

She comes over to you with the towel afterwards and wipes you off for you before flicking your nose. Your hands go to your face automatically and you say "ow". She grins at you, swirling the towel around a little.

"How was that?"

You suddenly feel a bit self conscious and put yourself away underneath your underwear, zipping up your pants afterwards. "Uhh great?"

Sarlla snickers and you stand up, feeling a little shakey in the legs. What you two have done starts to dawn on you and you feel... bad.

Everything begins to dawn on you just how horrible of a detective you are. It's not like there's a handbook with rules explicitly against stuff like this, but it's common sense. You smile awkwardly at Sarlla, unsure of how you're going to leave without hurting her feelings.

"Alright now, get out. I have to change for the next show and get ready," she tells you.

Alright, scratch hurting her feelings. You say an awkward thanks to her and when you get to the door, she says your name. You look backwards at her and she winks at you.

"You're too easy. Develop a little resistance to sex, detective. I could have easily murdered you in here if I'd been my sister's killer and gotten rid of you."

Damn, she's right. You tell her she's right and she grins at you. You leave, wondering if that was the whole point of this.

You decide to head back to work. You'll have to visit Skinnr's workplace later, after more interviews, probably. Ugh. Acklin usually handles interviews, you handle the investigating. If she gets pissed about how long you took, you'll just use that excuse. Under no conditions are you to tell Acklin about what went on between you and Sarlla. When you get back, Pendic stops you when you go by your desk.

"Acklin's really upset with you," she informs you. "She told me to tell you to go straight to her office when I see you."

"Hah, what else is new, she's always upset."

"This is a special type of upset."

"Hoo boy." You wave at Pendic before beginning your walk of shame to Acklin's office. Your other coworkers don't really pay any mind to you, so that's all fine and dandy, you guess.

When you get to Acklin's, she's at her desk, filing papers. She looks up when you enter and an immediately pissed look crosses her face. She sets her papers down.

"Shut the door."

You shut the door.

"Sit down."

You sit down in the chair in front of her desk. She stares at you for a moment before rubbing her forehead.

"What were you thinking, having sex with one of the suspects?! Are you seriously that mentally undeveloped?!!"

"What- How'd you know?!" You mentally kick yourself for confirming her suspicions instead of denying it.

"Are you kidding? You reek of sex. When I went to the place earlier to interview some coworkers, you don't think I saw you all doe-eyed and following her into the dressing room?" She put her hands down on the desk. "Antemh we are supposed to be god damn professionals. If you want to have sex, I don't care, but don't have it when you're being paid to get some god damn work done, and don't do it with one of the god damned suspects!"

You flinch at her loud voice, then nod. "I know, I know, I shouldn't of done that."

"Then why did you do it?!"

You don't have an answer for that, but it's probably better that you don't because Acklin is fuming. She takes a deep breath in, then rubs her face. "Damnit Antemh. I had to meet up with two suspects because you were out playing around."

"I got some interviews from Sarlla's coworkers, and I interviewed her and Skinnr," you say defensively.

"Woo hoo, you got some actual work done," Acklin deadpans. She puts her notebook down on the desk. "I interviewed Conrad Renals and Brusli Skreon, plus rhe Renals's mother. Conrad's the brother of Darvin Renals and I found out from his family how to get in touch with him. Brusli was the neighbor of Aniese, she didn't have much anything useful to give."

"Okay. Here's my notes." You take out your notebook and put it on the desk. Acklin doesn't take it. "I'm going to be interviewing Darvin because I don't trust you to not have sex with him. In fact, I'm taking away all of your interview privileges, you get to go and inspect Aniese's house."

You don't argue because you really hated doing interviews.

"I'm commanding this investigation now on the accord of you can't control your god damn impulses. Go now and inspect the house," she says

 

You nod and don’t argue because, honestly, there’s not much to gain by arguing with Acklin. She might just give the interviews right back to you, too, and then where would you be? Not investigating what you want to. You have failed successfully, but you’re still not too happy about having been chewed out by your coworker. You bet she would have been seduced just as easily as you had if she’d been the one interviewing Sarlla. You frown bitterly as you trek back to your own office for the moment to gather a few things. A camera, a new notepad since you left Acklin your other one, and some pens. Today’s been a good day, you guess, aside from… pretty much everything.

After you gather the things you need, you switch coats (you keep two coats in your office, a trench coat and a winter coat- you were wearing the winter coat before) because you feel like you look a lot more detective-y in your trench coat. You also get your cool detective hat that your daughter gave to you for your birthday, and then you’re ready to go. When you walk out, Pendic giggles at your attire and waves bye to you and you wave bye to her. She’s a nice lady. You should see if she’s single. You shake your head, walking down the sidewalk. You need to stay focused now, no time for thinking about anything besides the case.

You wave over a taxi and tell the man where you’re going. You’re not really in the mood for small chat, but the man doesn’t seem to notice and happily talks away at you the entire trip. You just stare out the window. The victim, Aniese, lived out in the suburban neighborhood, sort of like you do, but not in the same area. You typically also walk to your own home, but you didn’t feel up to walking the distance to the victim’s home. You pay the taxi driver, then get out and start towards the door. You have the keys to the home in the folder, in a small baggy. The first time you had to inspect a victim’s home, you felt like you were trespassing, but now you don’t really care if you look suspicious.

 

There’s a bunch of yellow tape everywhere, but you aren’t sure why it hasn’t been taken down yet. You guess since it’s an ongoing investigation, the police decided to keep it under wraps. You have to smirk at that. Heh, wraps. You’re comedy gold. So’s this tape. Okay, that wasn’t as good, all they had in common was the color, barely. You decide to quit making jokes and unlock the door, stepping inside and then closing it. It’s dark inside, you guess they didn’t want to leave lights on. When you flip on the light switch, your heart nearly leaps out of your chest when you see the victim sitting on the couch. That’s right, the victim.

“What the hell?!” you cry, drawing the attention of the victim. You can’t really bring yourself to think the victim’s name because she’s _supposed to be dead_.

The victim looks towards you and you stumble backwards a little. It feels a little dramatic, but she is definitely not supposed to be there, be moving, be _anything_. She actually looks surprised, too, and scared. She stands up and stares at you in fear. She backs up, but instead of bumping into the front of the couch, she walks through it. You can only stare in astonishment and some sort of fear that you shouldn’t be feeling.

When you finally muster up your voice, you think you know what’s going on. The victim doesn’t seem to grasp she’s literally standing in the middle of her couch and you say, “You’re a ghost?

The woman stares at you, her eyebrows furrowed. Her mouth moves but her voice is very soft that you have to strain to hear her ask, “G-G-Ghost?”

 

You don't believe in ghosts. You've never believed in ghosts, but this instance begs your believing. She can't possibly be there, she's dead! You stand there uselessly, staring. The victim looks down, then makes a startled noise at being inside the couch. She stumbles out of it, tripping on herself and falling down into the coffee table, except going through it instead of breaking anything. Instinct kicks in and you rush forward to help her up. She flinches away from your hands, but surprisingly, you're able to lift her up.

When you help the woman up to a standing position, she's crying, her hands on her face. You wonder if this is how she was when she was alive, or if this is how ghosts act.

You holds your hands out, not exactly sure what to do. You're suddenly reminded that you had sex with her sister and suddenly sort of feel kind of aroused again. Just a little. She looks like her sister, except obviously sadder and with long hair and more meek and covering clothes. She's pretty, you think. She's also dead. You sort of step to the side.

"Hey uh... Aniese?"

The ghost woman looks up at her name, tears in her eyes. You see that she also has glasses. You hadn't noticed those before.

"You're uh... a ghost, huh?" You figure you might as well just ask. "Can you tell me who killed you?"

Instead of answering, that makes her spiral back into a crying fit. Nice one, Antemh, you think. She's useless like this and hell if you want to spend all day trying to investigate a ghost.

You inwardly groan at your conflicted feelings and scoot closer to the ghost. "Okay, hey uh, I'm the detective who is working on your case, or one of them. If it helps, I've talked to your sister and that guy at the coffee shop."

That seems to get her attention and she looks up, sniffling with watery eyes. You give her an awkward smile, not sure how to handle this. They never taught how to console ghosts in school.

"Your sister really misses you and so does the coffee shop guy. And, hey, since you're a ghost, you can go see them, right?"

The ghost starts crying again and you're back to square one. "B-B-But no one c-c-c-can s-see me!!" she cries, sobbing.

"Hey, hey I can see you! Maybe I can take you to see Skinnr or Sarlla or someone!" You move a hand to touch the ghost's arm and you end up making her cry harder, if that was even possible.

"Uhhh... okay so.. What I'm going to do is investigate your house for clues, that alright?"

"I don't w-w-want you t-touching any-anything!! G-Get o-out!!!!!"

 

You decide that you're not going to let a ghost stop you from doing your job. "Sorry, but I have to do my job. You're dead and I have to find out how you died."

That only makes the ghost cry more and you sigh quietly. "I'll be quick. I just have to ruffle through your stuff and I'll be done."

"Th-th-the p-police a-a-already t-t-took everything," the victim says misersbly.

"All the evidence?"

Aniese (you decide you should call her by her name) pauses, her breath hitching from crying. It's odd that she even has breath. She sniffles, then shrugs quietly. She starts going in a direction, not saying anything. You notice she's not walking, not even barely touching the floor, just gliding. You feel like its your duty to follow her, so you do. She leads you upstairs to her room and then stops at her bookshelf, fingers going through a book. You stop next to her and pick out the book she couldn't get.

The book is a small diary-looking journal with flowers on the cover. You start to open it, but you make a nois when you feel nails dig into your arm. Aniese is looking to you, a sad look on her face but a tight grip with her hand on your arm.

"D-Don't o-o-open it r-right n-now. J-Just t-take it."

"Aaaalright." You tug your arm away, looking down at it. There are red marks where her nails dug in. You open your trench coat and store the book in one of the many pockets you have inside of it. "Anything else I need to know, or should I get back to searching?"

Aniese looks incredibly sad. She must not want you to mess with her things, because she sinks down to the floor and points underneath her bed. When you get down on your stomach and look under, there's a binder with a bunch of paper inside it. You tug it out and there's a piece of paper in the plastic slip on the front with flowers doodled on it. You can't pocket it, so you carry it instead, deciding not to open it either.

"That all?"

Aniese nods, starting to tear up again.

"Okay. You have a phone I can use to call my partner? Or no?"

"D-downstairs..." She sniffles.

You decide to go call your m- Acklin and tell her you're done. You head downstairs. It's a nice house, nicer than your's. Too bad the owner died. You step into the kitchen, glancing around before you see a phone. Okay, now you just have to remember the number to Acklin's office. It's kind of confusing with all of the extensions and whatnot. It's a pretty cool looking phone, it has the swirly doodad and its a pretty blue. It's sitting on a small endtable with a small portrait next to it.

You inspect it. It's a black and white photograph of Aniese and another guy. She's smiling and the man is giving sort of a smile, looking more unhappy to be there than actually happy. You wonder who he is. You look around, then very casually take it and put it in one of your pockets before dialing the number of Acklin's office. It rings a few times, then Acklin picks up.

"Hello?" She sounds different over the phone.

"Hey Acklin, it's Antemh."

"Your call better be important, I have a client here." You two use the word 'client' whenever referring to a suspect in front of the suspect.

"I just wanted to tell you I've finished scoping through the victim's house. Barely anything worth noting, the cops took everything else. Who are you interviewing?"

"The one I told you about earlier."

Oh, the politics man. "Alright. What do you want me to do meanwhile?" You decide you shouldn't say anything about the ghost. That sex stunt earlier could have cost you your career. Who knows what would happen if you started spouting things about ghosts.

"I want to to keep up your interviewing. I have three more clients set up for you at 3:30, 5:00, and 7:30. Lobran Wygott, Dadevu Borgan, and Xemnes Fawkis, in that order."

"Wygott? Is he a relative?"

"He's adopted, but yes. Works in the same 'business' as Sarlla."

"Oh. And you know how?"

"Research, and not the kind you were doing. Now go get to work, don't forget to interview that kid's coworkers. Bye."

"Kid?" you ask, but it's too late because Acklin already hung up. You figure that she mean's Skinnr, since he pretty much looks like a kid, but wonder why she couldn't just say his name.

Now you're pretty sure Acklin may be finding some fishy things out about Darvin. You aren't one hundred percent sure, but if Acklin didn't want to say Skinnr's name around Darvin, the two of them may have something to do with each other. You make a note to ask Acklin about her findings later. You two will have to compare notes.

"Hey uh, Aniese!" you call in the empty house. There's a quiey crying noise from upstairs that stops when you say her name. "I'm uh, leaving. If you want to come you can, if you want? I need to visit my house first and check on my daughter and drop some things off."

It takes a moment, but Aniese comes down the stairs, looking miserable and tired. She's hugging herself and walking instead of floating, now. You aren't sure if she even can come, but who knows.

"So.. you're coming?"

Aniese nods, wiping behind her glasses. You find the fact her hands don't go through her odd, then you wonder why she was able to touch you and vice versa. And why she could sit on the couch when you came in, but then went through things after you told her she was a ghost. Maybe she'd been able to interact with the couch because she hadn't realized she was dead. Mysteries of the dead, you guess. You must have some kind of ghost-seeing powers. You hope your daughter doesn't have them.

It doesn't take you long to get home, maybe about half an hour. You don't feel like lugging around all this evidence the entire way, so you want to drop it off at home. Your daughter should honestly be at school today, but she felt too sick to go and wanted to stay home. You trust her enough that you don't think she wanted to sneak off or anything. Aniese is silent the entire way there and silent when you open the door and silent when you both come in. You close the door behind you, taking off your hat because it's kind of silly, then putting it back on because Arsoni will be happy to see you wearing it.

You walk to her bedroom and peer in. She sleepily looks to you from her bed. It looks like you woke her up. You smile a little at her and you feel Arsoni brush your jacket behind you, peering into the room as well.

"Hey sweetheart, how are you feeling?"

Arsoni makes a sick noise, then coughs. "Yucky." She looks past you. "Who's that?"

Well, great. She has ghost powers, too. "Y-You c-c-can s-see me?" Aniese asks shyly from behind you. You honestly don't want your murder victim talking to your daughter.

Arsoni makes a tiny "mmhmm" noise and snuggles further into her covers. She looks to you again. "Daddy is she a ghost?"

"Uh- Yeah. She's the victim in my case I'm working on."

"Oh. Okay." Arsoni turns over in her bed and closes her eyes, letting out a wheezy sigh. She must be kind of out of it, since she took that pretty well. You back up and close her door gently before heading to your own room.

Aniese follows you and watches as you take out the evidence from her room and shove it underneath your bed. You'll have to get it before you go back to the office. You check the time of the clock on your wall.

You cannot go back to the office without the evidence and you aren't planning to go back until after the interviews are done. You groan because you've got a long day ahead of you. You leave your home and make sure to lock it. Aniese follows you sadly. It doesn't take too long to reach the bookstore and by the time you reach it, Aniese is looking half remorseful and half happy. You open the door. The left and some of the right part of the store is the bookstore and in the corner is a small coffee shop. Aniese follows you, hugging herself and looking around. You walk towards the counter and see Skinnr there. He notices you right away and gives a small wave, still looking sad as he did from earlier.

"Hey, what can I get for you Mister Deonis?" he says in a dull tone. Aniese waves her hand in front of him, then hugs herself. "Any coffee or anything?"

"Some coffee would be great," you say. "Just black coffee though, nothing in it."

"Okay.." Skinnr turns around and starts preparing it. You glance at Aniese and she's back to looking miserable, tears brimming in her eyes and lower lip quivering. You aren't able to say or do anything for her before Skinnr turns back around with your coffee and sets it on the counter.

"That'll be ten cents, please," he mumbles. You're almost actually worried for the kid. You pull the change from your coat pocket and put it in his hand.

"Hey, do you happen to believe in ghosts?"

"I guess," Skinnr says, looking at you sadly.

He puts the change in the register before looking to you. “Why d’you ask?”

“No reason,” you reply. You put a hand in your pocket and take a sip of your coffee before talking again. Business seems to be running slow here, so you’ve got time. “Say, what’d you like so much about your girlfriend anyways?”

Aniese gives you a dirty look, blushing. It’s weird that she’s blushing because she’s dead. Skinnr shrugs. “Why?”

“Just humor me, I went to school to be a psychiatrist and came out a detective.”

“Okay,” Skinnr mumbles. He looks down at a napkin on the counter and starts fiddling with it. “Well, she’s not my girlfriend. Or… I guess _wasn’t_ my girlfriend. Um…”

You lean against the counter. Aniese is giving you a hard glare that you’re just ignoring. Even though you’re doing this because Aniese is here, it might also give you a few more hints at Skinnr’s motive if he was the killer, since Aniese won’t tell you who killed her. You motion for him to go on.

“Well… She’s really beautiful, y’know? Like, not just her looks but like…” Skinnr shrugs, avoiding looking at Antemh. “It’s dumb, but she’s just… beautiful all over. She looks beautiful, her smile is beautiful, her personality is beautiful. Wow just… whenever she laughs she kind of makes this scrunchy face that I find adorable and… the coffee she gets smells as sweet as she does and whenever we talk we just talk about the most mundane or boring things but with her they seem like the most exciting things in the world. I love how she loves books and how sometimes after a long day from working at the library she comes in smelling like old books and I love the way she flips papers in books when she’s reading because it’s this kind of quirky little careful way of turning them, like she doesn’t want to hurt them and she’s not aware of it and..” Skinnr’s cheeks are red and he closes his eyes before shrugging again. “I dunno.”

You glance at Aniese, whose eyes are tearing up and she’s hugging herself, watching Skinnr. “What else?” you ask. “Did you two ever see each other outside of here?”

“No,” Skinnr says softly. “I was trying to work up the courage to ask her out before….” He pauses, stiffening just slightly, then shakes his head. “You know.”

“Well, what if she was a ghost?”

Skinnr shrugs. “That’d be cool, I guess. She’s still dead, even if she is a ghost but… at least she’d still be here.”

Aniese walks up to him, fingers clasped together and tears falling down her face. This feels pretty sudden and personal, so you look away as she leans and kisses his cheek. You hear the tiny kiss noise and Skinnr brings a hand up to his cheek, opening his eyes and looking to you in a confused manner.

 

You shrug and he looks to the side where Aniese is, not seeing her. He looks sad and confused now, fingers still on his cheek. Aniese bites her lip, a concentrated look on her face. She moves her hand and takes his, moving it down to the top of the counter. Skinnr stares down at his hand, blinking widely. Aniese kisses his cheek again and when Skinnr looks to the side, his mouth opens a little before he looks to you quickly.

“Did- did you see her?!”

“Skinnr I’ve been seeing her ever since I went to her house to investigate.”

Aniese squeezes his hand, looking sad, before her hand starts to pass through his. Skinnr looks down at his hand sadly, flexing it after feeling her hand go away. He looks to you again, tears brimming his eyes. You feel a short ugly feeling in your chest, like this is all kind of really dramatic and you’d rather not be caught up in it. Death is dramatic enough without ghosts involved, but you force the feeling away.

“Did she… hear all that?”

Aniese is shaking and crying again and you look to her. She nods, sniffling and wiping at her eyes before hiding her face in her hands. She looks like she’s hurting really badly. You wish you knew who killed her, or that whoever killed her was stuck with looking at her being like this for the rest of their life and forced to feel bad for killing her. You nod at Skinnr.

“She did.”

“Oh…” Skinnr looks to his side, then to you. “Is she like… right here?” He points to his side.

You nod again and Skinnr leans awkwardly, kissing the middle of the air. Aniese sees him doing this and tips her cheek against his mouth, becoming solid for just a moment before not being able to focus anymore and fading back into her ghost self. Skinnr’s cheeks are pink and he covers his mouth, then sighs. He opens his mouth to say something, a few tears slipping down, when a coworker suddenly comes out from the back.

The man who comes out is sort of older looking. He looks to Skinnr to say something, then stops when he sees the tears. He sighs and pats Skinnr’s back and looks to you. “What can I do you for?”

“Oh, actually, I’m here investigating.”

“Investigatin’ what, this boy’s tears?”

“Well, I interviewed him earlier about Aniese Wygott’s death.” Aniese looks to you, face shiney with tears, when she hears her name.  
"Ohhh, he's all a wreck about that girl's death. Hope you find the killer."

 

"Well actually, I have to interview some of Skinnr's coworkers. You know, alibis and all that." You shrug and Aniese looks to you tearfully.

"Oh, I can give you that. What do you need to know?"

"Basically how he is at work, what your opinion is of him."

"Well I think he's a fine and dandy lad. He works hard and does his best. One of the finest workers I have." The man looks down at Skinnr and gives him a gruff smile, slinging his arm around his shoulders. Skinnr smiles shyly, sniffling.

"Okaay, how about where he was 6:31 pm on Tuesday the 11th?"

"Hmmm... Can't say I recall him bein' here then."

"I thought I was? I had night shift that night, didn't I?"

The coworker moves a hand to rub his beard thoughtfully. "Hm, I think you did. Your mom had some sort of fall and you had to take an emergency run, didn't ya?"

"Ohh that's right, you're right." Skinnr looks to you apologetically. "Sorry I forgot all about that, that's where I was. Didn't mean to lie to you earlier."

You shrug it off. "It happens. Suspects don't always remember things." You do, however, file it away for later, just in case.

"Any other coworkers I can speak to?" you ask.

"Nope, jus' me and my boy Skinnr here for now. Come back later and there'll be a few more workers, but nobody really gets coffee at this time."

"Alright, thank you. I'll be on my way."

You give the coworker and Skinnr a smile, then start for the door. Aniese lingers by Skinnr a moment more, tearful and studying his face before giving his cheek another kiss and following you out the door. It feels like a long and cold walk back to your house, where you check on your daughter again. She's sound asleep and you make sure not to wake her. You close her door and go to the kitchen. You make some soup for Arsoni in the microwave oven, then set it on the counter. You get out some paper and a pen and write a note for her, letting her know this soup is for her if she wants to eat.

You go to your room afterwards and retrieve the journal and binder Aniese let you take. She sits on your bed and watches you quietly, not saying anything. You don't say anything, either. You guess you're getting used to having a ghost follow you around. It isn't really like you can talk to her in public, save quiet and empty spaces, devoid of people aside from you and Aniese.

After you've retreived the things you need, you leave the house, locking the door behind you, then you and Aniese take the long walk back to your office. Aniese hasn't been there before, you can tell. She looks nervous and sad as you two enter the building. You take the stairs up to your floor and smile at Pendic when you pass by.

You decide to go to Acklin's office first. Aniese stays very close to you, her arm brushing yours occasionally whenever somebody walks by you two. Nobody else sees Aniese, or if they do, they don't say anything. You knock on Acklin's door before entering. She's working on some paperwork when you come in and looks up at you when you sit in the chair in front of her desk. She sits up and puts her paperwork aside.

"So, what'd you find?"

You pull out Aniese's things and put them on the desk. "I found these. I haven't gone through them yet, but they looked important."

"Did anything else happen to look important?"

"No, not really. There's this portrait of the victim and some man, I thought that might be important." You nudge the portrait that's on her desk that you put on it.

Acklin picks it up and inspects it. "That's the man I just talked to."

"Darvin?"

"Yes." She puts the portrait back. "I also read through your notes. Sarlla looks cleared, but I'm not taking her off the suspect list just yet. Conrad and his mother aren't on the list, they... just, no. Darvin... He's definitely at the top of the list. He was lying through his teeth almost the entire time."

"Really? What was he lying about?"

"Where he was at the victim's time of death, what he was doing, he lied about what he had for his damn breakfast."

"How do you know he was lying?"

"I could just tell. I want you to interview him tomorrow, he agreed to come in again and talk to you after our meeting here."

"Was there anything else you found out besides him lying?"

"No, not really. Apparently he and the victim were close. He was kind of possessive of her, really angry about him not being allowed to choose what was done with her body and all that. I don't know the deal with him. He mentioned Skinnr."

You lean forward. "What about him?" From the corner of your eye, you see Aniese put a hand to her mouth.

"Not much. Something about how he was getting too close to the victim, but when I pursued it he never said anything. I got the feeling that he thought he'd said too much. So he and Skinnr are related somehow. I'll go talk to Skinnr tomorrow and find out what I can from him."

You nod. "I get the office tomorrow and you do investigating?"

"That's what I was planning."

 

You pull Aniese's journal and binder towards yourself. "So we should probably look through these, huh?"

"You brought them. You honestly should have gone through them before you decided to take them." Aniese stands next to Acklin, watching you and looking sad.

"Yeah well, I didn't." You open the binder and the first page of it is a sheet full of photos. You don't know who took them until you find one that is Sarlla holding the camera out in front of herself and Aniese. They're both smiling happily and they look younger. You're not sure if this has anything to do with anything. You glance at Aniese and she pouts sadly. Acklin thinks you're looking at her and shrugs. You look back down at the binder and rifle through the pages.

Most of the pictures in there are of either Darvin, Sarlla, or Aniese. Not really any clues. Oh, hold on a second. You find a note in strawberry paper inside a plastic sheet and read it. It's a love note to Darvin, but apparently was never given to him. Aniese talks about how she feels whenever she's around him and how glad she is that they're friends, but she wants to be something more with him. You pop open the tabs of the binder and take the plastic slip out and hand it to Acklin to read. You clise the binder and keep going through it.

You end up finding a few notes to Darvin, then a few to Skinnr, then some to Sarlla and Lobran and some other people. The ones to Skinnr are talking to him about how nice he is and how sweet and thoughtful, and how greatful she is for him. There's a few suicide notes, but she obviously never gave them to people and never actually committed suicide. After all the notes are taken out, all that is left are pictures. This should probably go to Sarlla, since she's Aniese's sister. You'll have to ask her if she wants Sarlla to have it.

Acklin says nothing as she reads through the notes. You take the notebook and start flipping through it. It's a diary and talks about her life and most of it is pretty sad. You don't read through the whole thing, instead giving it to Acklin. Aniese watches you both sadly.

After Acklin's done reading everything, she puts everything in a small, organized stack. She looks to you. "I.. guess this will be useful. We get a little peek at how the people in her life are, firsthand witness."

You nod. "Yeah." Aniese looks away.

“So, Skinnr had told me that he’d been working his night shift at the time of Aniese’s death, but as it turns out he’d had some sort of family emergency. That’s what his coworker said, at least. Skinnr had forgotten about it. I don’t know if it was intentional or a true misrememberance. That was about three weeks ago, so I don’t blame him, but it was still suspicious,” you tell Acklin.

“You’re right, that is suspicious. It could be a simple ‘Oops I forgot’, but it’s still something to keep noted. If you had to guess, what motives would he have had for killing her?”

“The kid’s practically in love with the victim, maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe he was jealous of Darvin and Aniese’s closeness, maybe he was scared of being in love, maybe something else. It’s probably love-related, if it was him.” You rest your jaw on your hand. Aniese is covering her mouth and tears are falling down her face. You wonder if it really was Skinnr, or if she’s crying just to cry. You raise an eyebrow at her and she sniffles.

“I-I-I d-d-don’t rem-remember wh-who ki-ki-killed m-me,” she mumbles, looking down in shame, tears still falling down her face.

You can’t reply, so you make a simple “hm” noise and pull your old notebook over to yourself to look through the notes. “Skinnr was really upset over Aniese’s death, but that might have been guilt if he did kill her. It’s too early to say who did it.”

Acklin nods. “What about her sister?”

You flip through the notes about Aniese’s sister. “Well, she wasn’t nearly as heartbroken as Skinnr, at least not visibly. She’s probably better at covering up her emotions than Skinnr, hell knows I couldn’t tell what she was thinking when- uhh. Y’know.”

“You two had sex?”

You coughy loudly, trying to cover her words. “COUGHCOUGHLET’SNOTMENTIONTHISCOUGH.”

“Why not, it’s over and done with.”

“COUGHSTOPITCOUGH.”

Aniese is glaring at you from where she’s standing and you make a point of not looking at her. She narrows her eyes at you, then goes to the bookshelf in Acklin’s office and knocks a few books off. Acklin and you jump, then she looks to you with a “What the hell?” face. You shrug, like you have no idea. She stares at the mess, then sighs and turns back to you.

“Anyways, what did you get from her?”

“Not much. She was at ‘work’ when Aniese was killed. Her coworkers vouched for her. Got a lot of stink eyes and ‘There’s no way it was her’s from her coworkers, so, she’s probably not the killer.”

Acklin snorts. “You weren’t very popular in there?”

“No.”

“Wonder why.” She looks at the clock. “Well, it’s time for you to go meet up with the other suspects.” She slides a map to you with three locations circled on it, numbers 1-3 labelled next to each one. “You remember the order of the interviews? They correspond with each number. Get going.”

 

"You know, I am kind of getting tired of you ordering me around. You're my coworker, not my boss."

"Yet you're complying. Go."

You groan but get going. Aniese follows you, but doesn't get to close. She's still glaring at you while you walk down the stairs and towards the front door of the office building. She trips you right when you're going out the door, but luckily you don't fall.

Nobody's outside. "Would you stop?!" you cry at her once you're out.

"You s-s-slept w-with my s-sis-sister!!"

"Yeah! We're grown adults! Adults have sex!"

Aniese slaps the back of your head, hard. You stumble forward and make a face at her. She makes a face back and you just keep walking, grumbling to yourself. The first interview place is a pizza café, but you don't feel like eating. It's almost 3:10 by the time you get there.

You don't even really know what the guy you're meeting looks like. Luckily, there's a short asian-looking man standing by the front, who perks up when he sees you. He has a tidily groomed haircut and bright blue eyes. He smiles when you get nearer.

"Detective Antemh?"

 

You nod because yes, you are a detective and yes, you are Antemh. Aniese recognizes the man and you figure she should, this man must be the adopted brother that Acklin was talking about.

“You’re Lobran?” you ask, just to make sure. Aniese nods and you ignore her, still a bit miffed about the earlier kerfuffle.

The man, Lobran, nods. He has on a black winter coat and lady’s leggings. You’re honestly a tad weirded out by it, but you make no comments about it. You open the door for him and he goes in, Aniese following right after him. This Lobran doesn’t seem too upset either, not as upset as Skinnr. You guess that maybe the Wygott family is just good at hiding their feelings. That, or they weren’t really torn about Aniese’s death. Another thing you’re considering is that they possibly shoved all their emotions into Aniese, since she seems to cry every time you look at her.

You walk inside after Aniese and Lobran. Lobran leads you two to a table and you both sit down. You aren’t planning on buying anything or getting any food and you hope that Lobran isn’t, either. Your mind wanders to Acklin for just a moment and you consider how everyone so far has had to meet either you or her in a public place, the exception being Darvin. You suppose that might just be because he’s a political man and is probably snooty and has standards on where he goes. A man like that doesn’t just meet anyone in a pizza parlor, you guess. You focus your mind on Lobran. Aniese sits down in the third chair that’s at the table, watching Lobran. She’s also crying again, but you’ve sort of gotten used to her crying.

“So, Mister Lobran, you know why we’re here,” you say to the man.

He nods. “My sister died and you’re investigating her case.”

“That’s right. I’ve already talked to your sister Sarlla. I’ll probably also be talking to any other immediate family.” You fold your hands on the table.

“Sarlla and I are it. Da died a few years ago and we never had a mom. Well, we probably did somewhere along the line, or at least Sarlla and Aniese did. I never met her, though. Never met my own biological parents, either.” He grins at you. It’s not the catchy kind of grin where if he grins everyone does, it looks a bit more like a smug grin, even though there’s nothing to be smug about. His smile is annoying.

“Alright then, so it’s just you two I have to interview. How close were you and Aniese?”

Lobran shrugs. “Close enough. I wasn’t close to her like I was to Sarlla, but I still loved her. She was my sister. I helped Sarlla out with the money for Aniese’s medicine.”

“I’ve been told you work in the same business-line as Sarlla?”

“Yes. Same place, too, just different times. The evenings are the men’s shows, the mornings are for the ladies.” Lobran grins again, this time it’s sort of flirtatious. “Or the men as well~”

You feel generally repulsed, but try to not show it. Aniese is sniffling and wiping at her eyes. It’s amazing that the woman can cry like she does. You wonder if she can dehydrate herself from crying so much. Then again, she’s dead, so you suppose it doesn’t really matter. You clear your throat uncomfortably.

“Where were you at 6:31 pm on Tuesday the 11th?” you ask, changing the topic to something as far away as you can from the one you were just on.

“Hmm…” Lobran rubs his chin. “I can’t say I recall. Probably on a walk or at home.”

“Would Sarlla remember?”

“No, she was performing- Oh! I remember. That was one of her big performance nights, I was on the way to get some flowers for her after her show. To congratulate her and all.”

“Uh-huh. What part of the town were you?”

“Hell if I remember. I was somewhere, I know that. A lot of the gangs come out at night, so I was probably avoiding them as well.”

You study Lobran. You’re pretty sure he’s telling the truth, so you don’t say anything, but he has a way of sort of scattering his mind all over in his words. “Are you and Sarlla involved in any sort of gangs?”

“I am, so’s Sarlla. I won’t say which one, or what Sarlla’s part is.”

“Would the gang you’re in have any reason to go after your sister?”

“Oh, no, they wouldn’t. It’s a fairly small gang, only a handful of people in it. I know everybody personally and know where they were when Aniese died.” He grins. “Sarlla and I did a little investigation of our own within our gang after she died. We would have killed for Aniese.”

“That doesn’t really help your case.”

“I might as well tell the truth, don’t you agree?”

“Yes, I’m glad you’re telling the truth.” The man seems too honest to have done anything to Aniese. While everything seems a little fishy, it’s seeming less likely. He’s definitely still a suspect on your list, though. Aniese has her elbows propped on the table and she’s crying, studying her little brother. “Did Sarlla and Aniese get along well?”

“Their relationship was practically borderline incestuous.” Lobran snickers. Aniese frowns and leans over, flicking Lobran’s nose. Lobran jolts and instinctively goes, “Ow.” He holds his nose, glancing around before looking back to you.

“Sorry, must of been bitten or something!” He puts his hands down and smiles.

1 - ask about any history of violence  
2 - ask when he works  
3 - excuse yourself

You give him a smile back. You have your folder inside of your trench coat, but by now you know enough of the details by memory that you should be able to interview Lobran without looking at the folder. “Do you have any history of violence?"

Lobran shakes his head, then pauses. "Well, not me hurting anyone. Mostly me getting bullied in school." He smiles, even though you aren't sure that that's a topic to smile about.

Aniese scoots her chair towards Lobran and Lobran looks to the chair, surprised. He leans over to look at the legs of the chair, then looks to you. Another smile cracks his mouth. "Must be haunted."

Oh, only if he knew. "Must be."

1) ask when he works  
2) tell lobran about anieses journals  
3) ask about lobrans personal life

So, Mister Antemh, do you believe in ghosts?"

You shrug, glancing at Aniese. "I didn't used to, but recently I've started to."

"Ohh? Why is that?"

"You could say some recent events have brought to light that maybe ghosts are real."

Lobran smiles sweetly. "Is the ghost of my sister following you around?" Your heart stops briefly and Lobran laughs. "I'm just teasing you, Mister Antemh."

You are feeling very uncomfortable and you're very sure that the suspect is flirting with you. Aniese giggles, sitting next to Lobran. She moves her hand to Lobran's, holding it. Lobran doesn't seem to consciously notice, but you see his fingers curl around her's.

"So, 'Mister' Lobran, I happened to find some of your sister's journals when I visited her house."

"Mm?"

"After the investigation is closed, the journals will be returned to either you or Sarlla. Would you be alright with that?"

"Sarlla and I would be fine with that, I think. Sarlla might be a little upset about you going through them, but I understand." He rubs Aniese's hand with his thumb, still looking at you.

"When was the last time you saw your sister?"

"Which one?"

"The dead one."

"Owch. Well, it was a few days before she died. I made sure she was taking her medicine, made sure she was doing okay, brought some macaroni and cheese Sarlla made for her and spent the night." He shrugs. "She seemed fairly happy. I was hoping life was going really well for her and then, you know. Next thing I hear is that she's dead." Lobran's shoulders sag a little, his jokes and smiles forgotten temporarily.

You hear Aniese sniffle. She squeezes his hand and rests her head against his. She mumbles a quiet apology to him and you don't know if he heard it or not.

"What's your personal life like?" you ask Lobran. You don't really care except for if he's doing illegal things or violent things. Anything that might point him out as the killer.

"A-well, it's pretty great. My beau and I have been going steady in our relationship, I have a good job with my sister. I cannot name any names, but one of our gang is expecting a child and I'm very happy for them." Lobran smiles at you happily. Those all seem like good things.

"So, Lobran, when do you work?" you ask. Aniese is cuddled up against Lobran. You don't know if he can feel her.

"Oh, interested for a show?~" Lobran smirks at you and you suddenly feel very uncomfortable.

"Er, _no_ , I'm just asking."

Lobran pouts his lower lip out, then smiles deviously. "Suure. I'm on from 10 to 11 in the morning, hot shot."

Ew.

You make the greatest effort not to wrinkle your nose, not just because it would be rude but also because Lobran's dead sister is glaring at you hard. You clear your throat, then ask, "When was the last time you saw Sarlla?"

"Just earlier, actually! She came to see my show, haa~" Lobran leans his jaw into his hands. "It was a pretty big deal for me this morning. Got a whole show all to myself."

Aniese coos over Lobran, moving a hand to pet his hair and mumble a soft congratulations to him. You also congratulate him and he beams.

"What about the negative parts of your life?" you ask. "Earlier you only named the good things."

"Hmm. Well, my sister died, that's a pretty negative part. My man almost killed himself by falling off a ladder, he's a house painter. Hm... Sarlla almost sprained her ankle with a fall in one of her shows. That's about it, I believe." Lobran sighs and Aniese kisses his forehead, sniffling.

"Well, I should get going. It's  
" you check your watch, "4:40."

"Alright then, Mister Antemh. I'll be seeing you." Lobran gives you a charming smile and you return the smile. You will definitely not be seeing him again if you can help it.

You get up, thanking Lobran for his time. For a moment you have the urge to take a massive shit on the table, but you refrain from doing so. Aniese follows you out of the establishment, though reluctantly. She kisses her brother on the head and hugs him before leaving with you.

"Wh-wh-where a-a-a-are w-we g-going n-n-now?"

"I have another interview at the park." In your personal opinion, it feels too cold to have an interview outside. Maybe your suspect will agree to go inside somewhere.

When you get to the park, there's only one person there, and it's a woman sitting on the bench. A black woman, actually. You hesitate, making a face, then decide you'll have to get through this. Acklin will be mad if you don't. You'll just have to refrain from sitting near the woman. Aniese doesn't seem affected by the woman's color, she just looks as sad as always. No, scratch that, she looks a little happier when she sees the woman.

You stuff your hands in your pockets. You don't have anything valuable on you, but you still feel defensive. You approach the woman.

"Miss Borgan?"

The woman looks up at you, adjusting her glasses. "Detective Antemh?"

"That's me, yes," you say curtly.

"Dadevu is just fine. I'm not a woman."

"Oh, sorry sir."

"Or a man."

You stop, puzzled, but decide it's probably some silly trick the woman's pulling.

You decide it probably wouldn't end well if you invited the woman inside. You sit down on the bench, not next to her, but far enough from her that you aren't too uncomfortable. Aniese settles down right next to her happily, though you don't understand how she could want to be that close to somebody such as that.

"So... Dadevu, what was your relation to Aniese?"

"We were coworkers."

 

“Were you and Aniese close?” you ask, folding your hands in your lap. This feels almost painful to talk to the woman. Aniese doesn’t notice you, she just rests her head on Dadevu’s shoulder and puts her hand on the lady’s hand. Dadevu glances in Aniese’s direction, furrowing her eyebrows, then looks back to you. Aniese resumes her affection.

“We were,” Dadevu says shortly.

“Would you care to exaggerate?”

“We were very good friends. We both worked at the library together.”

You find that odd because you never found those types of people literate. You try not to let it show, however. You have an hour and a half for this interview and so far it’s only been a few minutes. You feel very conscious of the very short time that’s passed, and even more conscious of how much you have left to pass.

“Did you and her ever have any sort of fights?”

“No, not that I recall. We had a small disagreement a while ago.”

“About?”

“Where a book went on the shelves.”

Aniese smiles sadly at Dadevu, holding her hand. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say she looks practically in love with her. It’s a little disgusting, you think. Aniese glances at you and frowns at you, as if knowing your thoughts. You give her no response, because whatever response you would give, Dadevu would think you were aiming at her personally. You don’t want that at all.

“Did you ever have any other disagreements?”

“No.”

“Where were you at 6:31 pm on Tuesday the 11th?” you ask her. Aniese looks to Dadevu’s face, then rests her cheek on her shoulder again.

“I was at the library.”

“Where was Aniese?”

“Well she obviously wasn’t there.”

This one has sass. You cross your arms. “What time did she leave work?”

“I was working late, so about four-ish. Our shifts end at that time, but I needed overtime.” Dadevu glances Aniese’s way again, a slightly miffed and confused look on her face, then looks back to you, dropping the expression.

You move your hands from your lap into your pockets because honestly, your hands are so cold. You’re freezing and for a dramatic moment you’re pretty sure you’re going to die from being so cold. Then the moment passes and you’re left feeling annoyed and cold. Aniese is not affected by the weather and you really aren’t expecting her to be. She’s dead, weather probably doesn’t affect the dead. Probably.

Dadevu looks completely fine with the cold and it makes you a little angry at her for being able to tolerate the cold while you’re freezing. You try to not show that you’re that cold, though. You breathe out.

“Did you and Aniese know each other very well?” you ask her. Judging by how Aniese is acting, you’d say they knew each other pretty well. Gross.

“We did,” Dadevu answers, and you aren’t surprised.

“Did you two know each other outside of your workplace?”

Dadevu nods, her fingers twitching underneath Aniese’s hand unconsciously. “We did.”

“Did you two ever get into any disagreements or disputes?” you ask. You honestly don’t care and don’t want to find out, but you should find out all that you could from her. You cross your arms over your chest. You’re pretty sure that your fingers are frozen solid now.

“We didn’t,” Dadevu tells you. “We got along very well.”

“How well?”

Dadevu smiles slyly. “Very well.” Aniese blushes, which you find is odd because she’s dead and shouldn’t have any blood flow _for_ her to blush.  
"Alright, I'm going to stop you right there because it's really cold out here. Would you mind if we went inside to talk?" you ask the woman.

Dadevu nods. "I would. I'd rather stay out here. I don't really trust the folks inside of these shops."

You take that to mean that she doesn't trust white people, which is just as well because you don't trust people of her kind. Aniese seems to be just fine clinging onto Dadevu's arm, however. You make a note to ask Aniese about her and Dadevu's relationship later. The interview between you and Dadevu does not last long because you find yourself growing less and less fond of her and more and more cold. When you squeeze all you can from her (she and Aniese had been an item but apparently broke up a little bit before Aniese died, due to mutual agreement they would be better as friends), you say goodbye and start hurrying towards your next destination.

Aniese lingers with Dadevu a little longer, but it isn't long before she's at your side again. You feel the familiar sensation of her slapping the back of your head. "Y-Y-You were so r-rude to h-h-her!"

"Don't care. I got what I needed from her. At least she's not a suspect anymore." Your head is slapped again and you grit your teeth, sending a side glare at Aniese. She pouts, looking close to crying, like always.

You sigh and look at your watch. You have ten minutes until you have to meet with Xemnes Fawkis.

You're in a pissy enough mood, so you make a face at Aniese. Granted it's kind of immature. You pull down your lower eyelids and stick your tongue out at her. Aniese looks at you oddly, then makes a tiny giggle. You pause, your anger defused for the moment because of the simple fact that that was not the intended reaction you were trying to provoke.

You decide to hurry up to your next interview. It's in a coffee shop you frequent often. Acklin thinks the coffee from the place is shitty, but that doesn't stop you from bringing her some from there in the mornings. When you arrive, you find you're there before the man you're supposed to be meeting.

You forego the small chat and coffee ordering and go to the bathroom. Not really because you have to pee, but more as a gauging of just exactly how far Aniese will follow you. Since she also seems pissed at you, she stares you straight in the eye all the way into the bathroom. She stays right in front of you as you unzip your pants and begin to pee. You both maintain eye contact the entire time and you actually find it pretty uncomfortable.

However, you survive the experience and so does Aniese. Soon you both are in a booth and avoiding eye contact awkwardly. You don't have to look down at the table for much longer, because a chubby-looking asian man stops in front of your table and smiles. He bears uncanny resemblance to Lobran.

"Detective Antemh?" he asks.

"Yes," you say and the man sits down in the seat across from you. Aniese shyly scoots over so that he can sit down, though it wouldn't have really mattered if she did or not.

You open your mouth to formally give an introduction to Mister Fawkis, but your eyes wander and make contact with Aniese's and you both look away feeling very uncomfortable. You try to focus on Xemnes for now.

"Ah, Mister Fawkis hello." You have honestly no idea what to say and decide to start pulling questions out of your ass. "Today's been a little tiring, so I'll just get to the questions, is that alright?"

"Oh, yes, sure!" Xemnes smiles a little. He's in a black heavy winter coat and has on purple striped black gloves. His hair is also messy and is very telling of his personality.

"Okay, did you personally have any connections with Aniese Wygott?"

"No, not really."

You suddenly wonder why you're even interviewing him. "How did you know of her?"

"Well, Lobran is my brother who my parents gave up for adoption. Lobran was trying to track down them but found me instead and we grew close from there. Our parents passed a few years ago, so Lobran kind of introduced me into his family. I've been an honorary member of the Wygott family since, haha."

You deadpan stare at Xemnes, because he didn't necessarily answer the question. He blinks at you, then shrugs and continues.

"Me and Aniese weren't ever really very close, she was kind of shy but really nice. We got along. Sarlla took an interest in me and we didn't necessarily hit it off, but we're kind of close." He smiles at you and Aniese looks regretful.

You don't pay much mind to Aniese as you two are still on uncomfortable terms. You ask Xemnes about his and Lobran's relationship. Xemnes brightens a little at Lobran's name and keeps on smiling. You don't understand how he can be so smiley and happy for this long.

"Me and Lobran are getting closer! It was kind of weird finding out I had a brother after like… twenty years of not knowing. Skinnr was actually the one who linked us together, haha. It was kind of lucky, really. He’s my best friend and, well, saw Lobran with a bunch of papers and such on his table at the coffee shop and asked what he was doing and Lobran was telling him about trying to find the ‘Fawkis’ family. It was really lucky! Almost fated to happen, haha.” Xemnes is smiling at you like he didn’t just spew the most utter bullshit at you that you’ve ever heard.

You can literally feel your face deadpanning, but Xemnes either does not notice or does not care. You suddenly wonder if he does drugs, but refrain from asking. “Oka-a-a-ay…. ” There he went again, too, you realize. He honestly did not answer the question. “But what about your’s and his relationship?”

“Oh, yeah, we’re pretty close! We don’t go out and do much stuff together due to our work schedules, but we both have the same interests and such! Him and I will go out and get dinner sometimes or go for walks together and just spend time together and kind of get into a brotherly zone. It’s nice.”

You rub your face, trying to remove the deadpan expression you know you have. It’s hard to get rid of it. “Okay, what about your’s and Sarlla’s relationship?”

“Oh, man I’m pretty positive that she saw me as a bigger, chubbier version of Lobran, haha. She’s madly in love with him, she’ll kill you if you mess with him. Or her sister, for that matter. She really loves her family. I wouldn’t be surprised if she murdered the person that killed Aniese, if you find them…” Xemnes pauses a moment and Aniese looks sad, but that’s not new. “But anyways, she and I are on pretty friendly terms. It’s kind of weird to be hit on by my brother’s sister haha, but other than the innuendos and such, I think that she likes having me around sometimes.”  
You want to barf because of all of Xemnes’s mushy, gooey love. You glance at Aniese. She probably finds it sweet and, even worse, was probably fond of Xemnes anyways.

You decide now is a good time to ask Xemnes if he does drugs. It would explain his awful cheeriness. "Xemnes, do you do drugs?"

"Whaaaaat? No way that stuff is bad for you! The only drug I'm on is the drug of life." He smiles even more happily and you have the urge to throw up all over the floor because of his utterly disgusting sappiness. Aniese seems to find it cute and amusing and is smiling just a small, tiny bit next to Xemnes.

"Okaaay...." You have the folder in your jacket and you think it would be very convenient if you pulled it out and stared down at it instead of Xemnes's face, but you don't because you don't need it. "You mentioned Skinnr. What was your's and his relationship?"

"Oh, we're really close! I've known him since we were young kids. He's my best friend." Xemnes smiles and Aniese is a little charmed by her brother's brother. You are not. You feel like being at a minimum of five miles away from this man.

“Okay, do you know where Skinnr was at 6:31 pm on Tuesday the 11th?” you ask, folding your hands together on the table.

“Oh, huh, that’s really specific, let me see…” Xemnes looks up and to the left, tapping his finger on the table as he remembers. He blinks, then looks to you. “Uhh, I think I remember that he wasn’t home when I went over to his house that night. I remember asking him where he’d been and he said something about being late getting home because of work.” He shrugs, blinking at you.

You quirk up an eyebrow, but don’t say anything to Xemnes about the story. You keep a mental note of it, though, because it’s odd that Skinnr’s had three versions of a story so far. Xemnes might have just been remembering it wrong, but you know that when something seems like a coincidence, it’s not. However, it isn’t necessarily indicting yet, because you haven’t interviewed everyone you need to and the case is not closed yet.

“So, what do you know about Skinnr?” you ask.

“Haha, is Skinnr a suspect or something? You’re asking a lot of questions about him.” Xemnes smiles at you and you blink slowly at him.

“I am not under the liberty to tell you. I am, however, interested in what you know about him. Do you think he’s the kind to ever commit a murder?”

Xemnes blinks at you as if he didn’t understand the question, then smiles. “Well, I know that he liked Aniese a lot. Apparently she came to the coffee shop a lot. Skinnr’s really nice and sometimes a little wimpy. He’s afraid of swimming. Hmm… He’s really nice. I don’t think he could kill someone if his life depended on it.”

“So, Xemnes, are you related to any gangs? Do you know anybody who might be?”

“Whaaat? There’s no way I would be in a gang, they’re like… bad news. I don’t think I know anyone in any, either.” He blinks blankly at you and you decide that he is probably an oblivious idiot who likes to believe in the good of everyone, or some bullshit like that.

“Alright, well, thank you for your time Mister Xemnes. My cohort or I might be in contact with you again.” You stand and shake hands with him before leaving.

You decide that Acklin can just wait for you, because your mind goes to your little girl at home and you want to make sure she’s alright. Aniese follows you out the door and you say nothing to her. You two are still on semi-awkward terms after the whole bathroom incident, and you are not sure what you want to even say to her. Regardless, you both look at each other. Aniese looks sad, but you’re almost sure that that’s just her default look. You want to ask her about who killed her, but you know that she doesn’t remember and pressing harder would probably just make her cry. It doesn’t take you two long to get to your house. When you come inside, Arsoni is curled up on the living room couch in her blanket, sleeping. The soup bowl that you set out earlier is on the table and it’s empty.

Aniese makes a small noise that you can only assume is the result of a maternal moment of “Aw, how cute.” You walk to your daughter and kneel down on the floor, reaching and sweeping some of her bangs out of her face. You think that your daughter is the most precious person in the entire world and you would most likely kill someone if they messed with her. You kiss her forehead and she stirs only a little, making a sick, sleepy mumble and you gently shush her. You stand back up and lift her up off the couch and carry her to her room, because you’re not sure she is warm enough on the couch. You set her down in her own bed and tuck her in. She doesn’t wake up, but she gives a tiny smile and you take it as a job well done.

Your stomach grumbles and so you decide that you’re going to get food before you leave to go back to the office. Aniese follows you out of Arsoni’s bedroom and you close your little girl’s door so that she can have the proper silence she needs while she’s sleeping. You head to your kitchen and grab an already-made sandwich out of the fridge. A little note is on top of it. It says something along the lines of “Thank you for the soup daddy, I made you some lunch for when you came home, I love you” and you’re pretty sure it’s from Arsoni. You hope that she washed her hands before making this, but nonetheless you decide that it’s good to eat. You look to Aniese after you begin eating.

“So,” you say to her. “Do you remember who killed you, yet?”

Aniese shakes her head sadly. “No.”

“Do you have any suspicions about anybody?”

“No…” Aniese is tearing up, just like you were sure she would. “I d-d-don’t w-w-want to b-believe that a-anyone I kn-know k-killed me.. B-but it i-isn’t like I d-d-didn’t d-deserve it…”

You shrug. “I won’t say who I think the murderer is, because I have to be unbiased until it’s time to look at all of the facts. Personally, though, I think I know who it is. I just don’t want to jinx myself.”

Aniese looks to you, tears in her eyes. “Wh-who do you th-th-think… k-killed me?”

“Like I said, I can’t say just yet.”

“I-I’m d-d-dead, t-tell me.”

“Okay well… I’m pretty sure it’s Skinnr. I’ll have to interview whoever I can who knows enough about him. I could interview you, I suppose. Do you think he would have killed you?”

Tears are falling from Aniese’s eyes and she looks at you like you’re the most insensitive person on the face of the planet. Which, granted, you probably are. You blink at her, then shrug. “Okay, well, you asked.”

You focus on finishing your sandwich while Aniese is trying not to cry. It’s hard not to feel bad about making her cry, so awkwardly, you say, “You can go sit with Arsoni if you’d like. You seem like the type of person to be good with kids.”

Aniese’s eyes light up and she nods. Before you know it, she’s gone and in your daughter’s bedroom and you’re standing there by yourself, eating. You’ll probably head to the office without Aniese. You aren’t sure if you really like her hearing all the details of her death, it’s kind of a cruel thing, if you think about it. If you were dead and a ghost, you don’t think you would want to be there to sit through the investigation of your death. Actually, you’d probably be the most pissed ghost in existence. Then you wonder if Aniese omitted the murder from her memory because she’s so fragile-hearted, or if she genuinely just cannot remember. You sigh and put your plate in the sink when you’re done.

You wait a couple of minutes before going into Arsoni’s room. Arsoni is sitting on the edge of your daughter’s bed and petting her hair. You lean against the doorframe, clearing your throat. Aniese jumps and looks to you, blinking widely.

“I’m going back to the office. You should come along. Or not, if you want to watch over Arsoni. Honestly, if you did, I’d probably feel a little bit about leaving her home alone.” The last part is only half-truth, because you know that a ghost really can’t stop anything from happening. However, you do know that she can at least wake up Arsoni if something goes wrong.

“O-Okay,” Aniese mumbles. She looks down. “I-I-I’ll stay h-h-here… I d-don’t really like l-l-listening a-about my d-death…”

You don’t try your hardest to persuade her to come along with you to the office because in truth you don’t want her coming along. You nod and leave the room, then leave the house and make sure to lock the door. You don’t want just anyone waltzing in on your little girl. If anything happened to your daughter, you don’t know what you would do. It takes a little bit to get to the office and at this point, you’re tired. However, it did feel great to not have a ghost on your back at all times and you almost forgot what it was like to be alone while walking.

Pendic is at the secretary’s desk and smiles pleasantly at you when you reach your level. You return a tired-er smile to her and walk past her desk, towards the back of the level and to Acklin’s office.

You don’t bother knocking on the door, because manners don’t matter to you when it comes to Acklin. Well, for the most part, at least. Acklin is at her desk, pouring over notes when you come in. You sit down at a seat in front of her desk and pull out your own notepad that’s filled with your own notes.

“So, I found some things.”

Acklin looks up at you, looking tired. “Like what?”

“Well, for one, I have three different versions of stories for Skinnr. He told me he was at work, his coworker told me his mom had had some incident and Skinnr had left, Xemnes told me that Skinnr had told him he was grocery shopping. There seems to be a little bit too much to be just a coincidence. What do you think of it?” You lean forward, fingers clasped together.

“I’m not sure whether to say if it’s too soon to tell or not.” Acklin frowns at the notes she has in front of her. “Skinnr’s obviously lying about where he was.”

“His friend Xemnes and his coworker seemed to think that he was too sweet to kill her, but we’ve both seen cases where the murderer was an absolute sweetheart, claimed by everybody who knew them. Something doesn’t feel right.”

“You’re right. In a different situation, I wouldn’t hesitate to bring down the hammer and say it was him, but there’s too many open ties in this case to suddenly decide. What about your other suspects today?”

“Well, Xemnes is definitely not a suspect. I didn’t detect any lying from him, he’s basically a big airhead. He hardly knew the victim and spewed a lot of boloney about life or something. I asked if he was on drugs and, literally, his response was ‘the only drug I’m on is the drug of life’.” You deadpan as you say this. Acklin stares at you, then laughs.

“Alright, who else?”

“There was Dadevu. She and the victim were very… close, to say the least. However, she and the victim hadn’t been in contact leading up to Aniese’s death. I didn’t suspect that she was the murderer at all. I also interviewed Lobran, who was a little too honest with me, if you want the truth. He was… eccentric, but definitely not the killer. He was the kind of person who you would suspect at first but then you find out he’s not acting weird because there was a death, he’s just weird _period_.” You lean forward.

Acklin smirks at you, obviously enjoying your suffering. You both look up when Pendic walks in, interrupting you two.

“Oh, there’s somebody who wishes to see you two at my desk. Should I let them in?”

 

You look to Acklin because it’s not your call. She nods and Pendic gives both of you a bright smile before leaving. It’s only a minute or two before she escorts a familiar man into Acklin’s office. You turn around in your chair, surprised that Skinnr has come here, and then you can only wonder why he did so. Pendic leaves him to you two, closing the door behind her. Skinnr is trembling and glancing around, as if something hidden might attack him. You and Acklin exchange glances before Acklin speaks to him.

“Mister Abelin, may I ask what you are doing here?” She folds her hands on her desk and leans forward.

“I-I.. I um.” Skinnr looks close to tears and he’s watching both of you now. His fingers are entangled with each other, then in a voice barely above a whisper he says, “I need to make a confession.”

Under your breath, you make a noise akin to “dun dun dunnn”, but nobody else hears you. Still, you have the satisfaction of your nerdiness. Acklin motions for Skinnr to sit down in the chair beside you. You scoot over so that he has room in his chair. You aren’t necessarily sure of what he wants to confess, but you’re sure that it is probably not good. Skinnr shakes and his cheeks look flushed and he looks close to crying. You look to him and so does Acklin.

“What is it that you want to confess, Mister Abelin?” Acklin asks.

“I-I.. I..” Tears start falling down Skinnr’s face and his shoulders are shaking. “I was there when Aniese was murdered.”

“Did you murder Aniese Wygott, Mister Abelin?”

“N-No, no I was there, I-I-I-” Skinnr is now crying too hard to answer the question and trembling harder than a chihuahua on a cold day.

You decide to let Acklin do the talking because you’re a wimp when it comes to her. She watches Skinnr, letting him cry for a few minutes before asking him, “Mister Abelin, who killed Aniese?”

“I-I-I-I want to tell you, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” Skinnr cried, pulling his knees up into the chair and to his chest.

“Skinnr,” you say, “you need to tell us who killed Aniese. Not telling us is legally defined as obstruction of justice.”

Skinnr is trembling pathetically. “It was Darvin, he made me watch while he had his gang… do things to her, he said that I was getting too close to her, he said he’d kill everyone I loved if I told on him.”

Acklin doesn’t look surprised. You don’t feel surprised, but you haven’t met the man. “So, that’s why you lied to everybody about your whereabouts?”

Skinnr is shaking and crying and nodding. He opens his mouth to say more, but it seems that he cannot say anymore. You and Acklin look to each other. You’ll have to bring Darvin in right away because of the imminent possibility that he was the murderer. Your suspect list has been immediately narrowed to him and Skinnr. Just because Skinnr is the way he is currently, does not mean he is not the one who killed Aniese.

Acklin gets up and you aren’t really given a choice but to stay with Skinnr. You aren’t the type to be very comforting, so you only stay where you are and watch him cry. Acklin goes to the phone and dials what you assume is the police. You linger in your seat for a moment before getting up. You tell Acklin that you’re going to get some things from your office and that you’ll be back in a moment. There’s some files that you’ll inevitably need to confront the police. You don’t like working with them because usually they’re actually kind of rude. Sometimes you like to remind them that you get paid more than them. It’s nice revenge.

You are barely in your office when your phone starts ringing. You find it odd and at first, thing maybe Acklin dialed your number, but then you decide that is a stupid thought and that Acklin would not do that right this moment. You answer the phone.

“Hello, Detective Antemh’s office?”

A male voice speaks on the other end. “I have your daughter.”

Your heart stops cold in your chest.  
“...What?” You hold the phone with two hands and stare down at your desk. Your breathing quickens. Aniese was still with Arsoni, would she be able to help her? You don’t know if this person really has your daughter, but it’s not something that you want to play around with.

“You heard me. I know that Skinnr told you. I’ve had men following him the entire way. Drop the case or your daughter will be killed.”

You open your mouth, but nothing comes out. What can you possibly say? You can’t drop the case, but you can’t let your daughter be killed. Your heart nearly leaps out of your chest when you hear a gunshot on the other end of the phone.

“God DAMNIT, why are the cops here?!” The phone immediately clicks and you drop it, rushing to Acklin’s office.

“Arsoni’s in danger!” you cry. Skinnr looks confused, but the moment you say it, Acklin knows exactly what happened.

“The police said they were already there, I have the address, let’s go.” Acklin starts striding out the door and you follow after. Skinnr hops up and runs after you two, probably feeling guilty for this whole situation.

It feels like it takes too long to get there and when you do, the police cars are crowded around a tall building. When you look up, you see a short, blonde-haired man standing next to a buff man who is holding your daughter. Your daughter looks terrified and is still in her nightgown. Her wrists are bound and she’s being held on the very edge of the building. Aniese is nowhere to be seen, and you can only wonder where she could have gone at a time like this.

Acklin is looking to you with a worried look on her face. Skinnr is shaking and looks like he’s about to pass out. You take it upon yourself to speak to the head of the police force. He’s at the front, staring upwards. As far as you can tell, this is a standoff. He looks to you when you approach him.

“Detective,” he greets. You shove your hands into your pockets.

“That’s my daughter up there,” you say. “And if she ends up dead, I can assure you that I will find a way to make you and your men’s lives a living hell.” You look him in the eyes and he nods.

“What do you suggest we do? If we make a move, he’ll throw her down.”

You frown and look up. The short man is looking down at you. That’s Darvin, you’re sure. He’s also Aniese’s murderer. You think over your choices. If you brought a trampoline or some sort of contraption to catch your daughter, the force could advance, but what’s to stop your daughter from being shot instead? You wish you could rely on Aniese to do something, but she’s not there. You don’t think a ransom would satisfy Darvin at this point. People are sure to find out about this hostage situation held up by the politician. You don’t know if reasoning would be a good idea, either.

“Bring a net, but don’t let him see it unless she’s about to be pushed off.” The captain nods and gives orders to a few officers, then turns back to you for more instructions. You bite your lip. “Give me your megaphone.”

The captain unhooks it from his belt and hands it to you. You turn it towards Darvin. “Let her go!”

 

A wicked smile comes across the politicians face. “Are you sure about that?” he shouts back. His buff makes a sudden movement and your daughter screams, being thrust towards the edge but not falling over. Your heart stops for an instant and you feel like crying.

“Don’t push her! Let me come up and we can discuss this!”

“What is there to discuss?” Darvin calls down. “You know as well as I do that my status as a politician will be ruined after this! I’m going down, and I’ll do my damndest to take the ones who ruined me down as well.” He looks to the buff and makes a motion with his fingers. The buff pulls out a gun and presses the nozzle of it to your daughter’s head. The clicking of the gun is audible from where you stand.

Arsoni is crying and staring down at you, trying her hardest to stay still and not upset the buff man holding her. You grit your teeth, palms sweaty on the megaphone. You’re still standing there when you notice Skinnr edging across the front wall of the building. You watch as he gets to the front doors of it and slips in. Darvin hasn’t noticed. You can only assume some of his buffs are scattered around inside and out.

You hesitate, blinking, then look back up. You’re surprised to see Aniese standing next to Arsoni, petting her head and looking down at you worriedly. For a moment, you feel angry at her for not having been there earlier, but then focus on the problem at hand. You raise the megaphone up to your mouth. You decide that you can at least distract Darvin until Skinnr manages to make his way up there.

“Why are you doing this, Darvin?” you ask. It’s obvious, but it’s just a filler question.

“Why do you think?” he calls down. “You should have figured it out already. I killed Aniese to punish Skinnr for crossing my path! The bitch shouldn’t have gone against what I told her to do!”

Aniese frowns, looking teary and petting Arsoni’s hair to calm her down. Your daughter is still crying, legs trembling and eyes closed tightly. You estimate that it should take Skinnr a few minutes to get up there if he’s hurrying, due to how tall the building is. Aniese kisses your daughter’s head and moves to the other side of the buff, her hand hesitating to touch the gun in his hand. She looks down at you, looking scared and sad, then looks to Darvin.

“You didn’t own her, it wasn’t your decision what she did or didn’t do!” you call back up. You’re bordering on the edge of petty arguments.

“Yes, it _was_! She’s been mine since we were children! She’s not allowed to do anything I didn’t tell her she couldn’t do!”

“But now she’s dead because of you!”

“GOOD!”

Immediately after, Darvin whips around at the sound of a door opening. You’re hoping that it’s Skinnr. Aniese seems to jump into motion when Darvin begins the words, “SHOOT HER!”

Aniese grabs the gun as the buff is pulling the trigger and aims it away from Arsoni and, consequently, towards the man’s own head. Arsoni screams as she stumbles away from the blood shower of the man’s head and, thankfully, away from the edge of the building. The man’s body falls forwards, but not enough to fall off the building. When you look back to Darvin, you only get to see him standing there for a split second before he’s flying off the building with Skinnr holding onto him. You aren’t able to look away from them falling before they both hit the ground.

And just like that, it’s over.

Your first intinct is to rush towards the two men that fell. You’ve seen enough gorey situations in your life that you’re sure that you can handle the sight of this. As expected, Darvin is dead. Blood is seeping out from underneath him and his limbs have small bone fractures jutting out underneath them. Surprisingly and thankfully, Skinnr is still alive, but nobody moves to touch him. He’s rolled off of Darvin and onto his back. His eyes are closed tightly and he’s groaning. He looks like he’s in severe pain. You aren’t going to touch him because that might make it worse if he has any fatal injuries. You hear somebody shout that an ambulance is here and somebody else shout that Skinnr is still alive.

You leave the scene and rush into the building. Now, you don’t care what’s happening, you just need to get up to your little girl and make sure she’s okay. You run nonstop up the stairs until you reach the roof level and you bust out of the door, running towards Arsoni. She’s crying and shaking and Aniese is hugging her, tears in her eyes. You rush to your daughter and wrap your arms around her, regardless of Aniese being right there and you kiss your daughter’s head, holding her tightly. You hear the door behind you open and close and you figure that it’s probably either paramedics or officers. You’re holding Arsoni tightly to yourself, closing your eyes and pressing your nose into her hair. She clings to your shirt, sobbing and trembling. Somebody says something to you but you aren’t sure what they’re saying, just that they need Arsoni to get into the ambulance as well so that she doesn’t go into shock. Aniese follows you as you and the person escort your daughter downstairs to the ambulance.

You see a group of buffs being arrested by officers and you see Acklin standing next to the ambulance where they’re loading Skinnr into the back on a gurney. It doesn’t take long to reach the vehicle. You and Acklin make eye contact and she nods at you before you get into the ambulance with your daughter. The doors are shut and then it’s just you, your daughter, Skinnr, and Aniese in the back. The vehicle lurches and begins moving. Arsoni sits in your lap and you wrap your arms around her protectively. Aniese stands next to Skinnr, looking down at him worriedly.

“So, Darvin murdered you,” you say, watching Aniese. Arsoni looks up at you when you speak, then glances at Aniese.

Aniese sniffles and nods. “I r-r-remember n-now, t-too.” She kneels down next to Skinnr and takes his hand, looking to his face. You aren’t sure if he’s conscious or not.

“So what happens now?” you ask. “I mean, to you. Do you just disappear now?”

Aniese shrugs. “I d-d-don’t w-want to y-yet. I w-want to m-m-make su-sure Sk-Sk-Skinnr’s al-alright.”

You nod. That’s a good reason, you guess. You’re glad this case was solved so quickly, though it feels like it’s been longer than a day. It feels like this morning was a week ago. You kiss your daughter’s head and figure, whatever happens next, happens.


End file.
